THE personal assistant to a council finance director stole £23,000 off the local authority to pay off huge personal debts.

Mother-of-two Trina Jones, 45, had been forced by her husband to sign loan agreements making her personally responsible for their debts.

After he left she found that she owed £100,000 and had threatening loan sharks knocking at her door. One even assaulted her son.

Mold Crown Court heard how Jones, as personal assistant to Denbighshire County Council’s finance director, was responsible for the admin of the authority’s purchase cards.

She ended up using them on a number of occasions to buy goods for herself which she sold to raise cash or which she gave to money collectors at her door.

It was accepted that the money was not spent on a lavish lifestyle, although she had used the council cards to buy items at local supermarkets, on a train journey and on a trip to Brussels.

Jones, formerly of Ruthin, but now living in rented accommodation in Birchwood, Warrington, admitted theft between March 2010 and February of this year and was told that it was “a serious breach of trust”.

But in the circumstances she was given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and placed on supervision.

No compensation or costs order was made in view of her dire financial position.

The court heard how she resigned and wrote a long letter to the council explaining what she had done and apologising for it. An audit was carried out which confirmed the loss.

Police were called in, she admitted what she had done, and went through all the transactions.

When charged said she was sorry, that she wished she could “turn the clock back”.

Judge Philip Hughes said that she was guilty of stealing £23,389 from her employer for over a two year period.

“You were in a position of responsibility as personal assistant to the head of finance at the authority,” the judge told her. “In that capacity you had access to their purchasing cards, which you were responsible for. But you used them for your own ends.”

The aggravating feature was the repeated use of the cards in breach of the trust imposed in her. But she made immediate admissions, did not try to deflect blame, and was clearly contrite.

“No one else had the embarrassment of the finger of suspicion being pointed at them,” Judge Hughes told her.

She was a woman of no previous convictions, had been in an abusive marriage, she had a manipulative and controlling partner who left her in huge debt.